Can I get rid of my SIPP?

[FrontRowSeat]

I opened a SIPP a few years ago when I was a SAHP as didn’t envisage going back to my old job. However I did go back so I have a good public sector pension. I don’t want to pay into my SIPP anymore. It’s only £25 a month and the whole SIPP is only worth around a grand, but i could really do with that cash now.

Is there anything i can do to close the SIPP and receive the value now? Or am I stuck until I’m 55?

You cannot usually get the money out before 55. Be wary of anyone who says you can - it will incur a very heavy unauthorised payments charge. You could look at options for moving it if your current pension allowed transfers in. You would need to check the scheme rules.

You can move it into your public sector pension often. Quite a limited time period to do so through, so ask the pension scheme about transfers in of other pensions.

Even if you could access the SIPP, you'd lose the tax relief and probably admin or penalty charges, that would make it worth almost nothing, certainly substantially less than £1k, so almost certainly not worth doing.

Thanks everyone - I will see if I can transfer into my work pension.